Nick Ptacek

Operations → Purchasing/Logistics → Real Estate @AldiUSA. SMB development on my own time. I enjoy everything business and would love to learn about yours.

[Anthony Pompliano 🌪 @APompliano]

This is very concerning.

"A system that relies on exponentially increasing levels of debt for each incremental unit of productivity eventually becomes so unstable that it simply collapses under the weight of its own leverage"-@jameslavish

We must increase GDP & lower the debt.

[Dr. Julie Gurner @drgurner]

If you want a new habit, practice “speed.”

- Speed of response
- Speed of execution
- Speed of decision-making

Speed is a force.

[Dr. Julie Gurner @drgurner]

Imagine what the world might be like, if everyone genuinely tried to "exceed expectations."

In your work, relationships or toward others...always striving for that next notch up.

Truth is, being exceptional takes effort -
And very few value being exceptional.

[Andrew Lynch @andrewglynch]

I’m bullish on work *near* home

People don’t hate the office, they hate commuting — but separating work mode and home mode is good

So you need a space <15 mins away that’s just forwork

could be your actual office
could be a coworking space
could just be a fancy garden shed

[Benny Johnson @bennyjohnson]

Kamala openly brags about dumping 100,000 Haitian migrants into American towns:

"They need support. They need protection."

[Frank Luntz @FrankLuntz]

The Trump-Vance ticket has done a combined 38 interviews since August 6th, compared to only 1 for Harris-Walz.

This could end up being like Trump holding 106 campaign rallies while Hillary Clinton held 71 in the final 70 days of the 2016 race.

https://t.co/Fb0rdVcGHd

[David Milstein @davidamilstein]

Must Watch Video Remarks from @IsraeliPM @netanyahu: "I was asked whether I am not doing enough to the release of hostages. Well, I want to set the record straight. On April 27th, Secretary of State Blinken said that, ‘Israel made an extraordinary, generous offer for a hostage deal.' On May 31st, Israel agreed to a U.S.-backed proposal. Hamas refused. On August 16th, Israel agreed to what the United States defined as a ‘final bridging proposal.’ Hamas refused again. On August 19th, Secretary Blinken said, ‘Israel accepted the U.S. proposal. Now Hamas must do the same.’ On August 28th - that’s five days ago - five days ago - Deputy CIA Director said that ‘Israel shows seriousness in the negotiations. Now Hamas must show the same seriousness.’

I want to ask you something. What has changed in the last five days? What has changed? One thing: these murderers executed six of our hostages. They shot them in the back of the head. That’s what changed! And now after this, we’re asked to show seriousness?! We’re asked to make concessions?! What message does this send Hamas?! It says, kill more hostages. Murder more hostages and you will get more concessions. The pressure internationally must be directed at these killers! At Hamas. Not at Israel. We say ‘yes’. They say ‘no’ all the time but they also murdered these people. And we now we need maximum pressure on Hamas.

I don't believe that either President Biden or anyone serious about achieving peace and achieving the release would seriously ask Israel, Israel to make these concessions. We’ve already made them. Hamas has to make the concessions. Thank you very much.

[The ₿itcoin Therapist @TheBTCTherapist]

🚨 The best 2 minute summary by a politician I’ve ever heard on how to fix inflation. ‼️

[Strong Towns @StrongTowns]

In the past 55 years, the amount of children that walk to school has declined from 40.7% to 11%. Why? Because the built environment makes walking to school unsafe.

Here’s how to change that. 🧵

[Robert Sterling @RobertMSterling]

People need to stop overreacting about Kamala’s plan to reduce food inflation, as if it would lead to communism, mass starvation, and the end of America.

I worked in M&A in the food industry. Here’s a step-by-step summary of what would actually happen:

1. The government announces that grocery retailers aren’t allowed to raise prices.

2. Grocery stores, which operate on 1-2% net margins, can’t survive if their suppliers raise prices. So the government announces that food producers (Kraft Heinz, ConAgra, Tyson, Hormel, et. al.) also aren’t allowed to raise prices.

3. Not all grocery stores are created equal. Stores in lower-income areas make less money than those in higher-income areas, as the former disproportionately sell lower-margin prepackaged foods (“center of the store”) instead of higher-margin fresh products like meat (“perimeter of the store”). Because stores in lower-income areas aren’t able to cover overhead (remember, even if their wholesale costs are fixed, their labor, utilities, insurance, and other operating expenses aren’t fixed… yet), grocery chains start to shut them down. Food deserts in rural areas and in low-income urban areas alike become worse.

4. Meanwhile, margins for food producers are also quickly eroding. Their primary costs (ingredients, energy, and labor) aren’t fixed, and their shrinking gross profits leave less cash flow available to cover overhead, maintain facilities, and reinvest in additional production capacity.

5. Grocery chains, which have finite shelf space, start to repurpose their stores (those they didn’t have to shut down, I should say) to sell more non-price-controlled items—everything from nutrition supplements to kitchenware to apparel—and less price-controlled food products. Your local Kroger or Safeway starts to look and feel more like a Walmart.

6. Food producers stop making products with lower margins. Grocery chain start competing with each other to secure inventory. Since they can’t compete by offering stronger prices (remember, producers aren’t allowed to raise prices here, and, even if they could, grocery chains no longer have the gross profit to bear price increases), they compete on things like payment terms.

7. Small grocery chains start to shut down entirely, or get sold to larger chains like Kroger. In addition to not being able to cover fixed costs, a major reason for this is because they can no longer reliably secure delivery of products, due to producers prioritizing sales to larger customers, which are able to leverage their stronger balance sheets to offer superior payment terms.

8. Smaller food producers—which typically sell via distributors, rather than directly to grocery chains—start to go out of business. Because these producers have an additional step their value chains, and because they have lower volumes over which to spread their fixed costs, their cost structure is inherently disadvantaged compared to major food producers. When grocery stores aren’t able to raise prices, cutting product costs becomes all the more important, and deprioritizing purchases from smaller producers is an easy way to do so.

9. As supply chains break down, lines start to form outside grocery stores every morning. Cities assign police officers to patrol store parking lots, and food producers draft contingency plans to assign armed escorts to delivery trucks.

10. The federal government announces a program to issue block grants for states to purchase and operate shuttered grocery stores. The USDA also seizes closed-down production facilities.

11. The government announces that prices for all key food costs—corn, wheat, cattle, energy, etc.—are also now fixed, to stop “profiteers” from gouging the now-government-operated food industry.

12. Shockingly, the government struggles to operate one of the most complex industries on the planet. The entire food supply chain starts imploding.

13. Communism, mass starvation, and the end of America quickly ensue.

Hey wait a second

[Rick Scott @SenRickScott]

Tomorrow, VP Harris, a person who has never built a business, doesn’t understand profit and loss, has never met payrolls, and who has never competed in a consumer market, is going to propose federal price controls. That should terrify every American. She claims that Congress needs to ban ‘price gouging,’ which is already widely illegal and not the cause of high prices. The skyrocketing prices created by the Biden-Harris administration aren’t price-gouging, it’s inflation. Her solution to the Harris Price Hikes she caused is big government on steroids—where Washington bureaucrats stick their hands into American businesses and say what they can and can’t sell a product for. It never works because it causes companies to make much less of something—destroying supply and causing a mass shortage of goods. One day in a middle school economics class would teach her those basic principles. Unfortunately, it’s not surprising to see such a dangerous and clearly flawed proposal come from a career politician who has never run a business.

Getting inflation under control will happen when the federal government stops recklessly spending money it doesn’t have, and we finally beat back the destructive war that the Biden-Harris administration has waged on U.S. energy which has made the cost of everything go up.

[Nick Ptacek @nfptacek]

Mayor Eric Johnson: America’s Cities Need Republicans, and I’m Becoming One https://t.co/ASQLtMxTqk

[Nick Ptacek @nfptacek]

At what point do we decide that omnibus bills with trillions in funding and over four thousand pages probably aren't an efficient and effective way to govern a nation? Just wondering.

[Michael Schwartz 🟡 @michlschwrtz]

⚠ Cities and property owners take note!

↙ On the left: suburban Detroit's Lakeside Mall now.
↘ On the right: what they're transforming it into.

🔁 Now, rinse and repeat across the country.

[Thomas H. Ptacek @tqbf]

I’m sorry, I simply cannot be cynical about a technology that can accomplish this.

[Nick Ptacek @nfptacek]

@TimothyDSnyder Genuine question - Could both not be true? Spending the way we are absolutely has a cost. But it could be argued (as you did) there is a large benefit as well.

[Nat Friedman @natfriedman]

OH "When the money is flowing freely it's easier to hire more people than deal with low performers"

[Nick Ptacek @nfptacek]

@JustinABeck @CaseyMericle @REconveneLA Love the idea of an east coast @REconveneLA ...or a spot for next year in Cali. Props to @JustinABeck for trying to make things happen.